Online culture magazine Sight Unseen has made the transition from editorial to curatorial with the second annual Noho Design District, "New York Design Week's most exciting incubator for new ideas and emerging talents." Founders Jill Singer and Monica Khemsurov—former editors at I.D.—managed to fill Great Jones Lumber's amazing, bare three-story space on Great Jones Street with eight exhibitions, dubbing it the American Design Club for the weekend.

Roman & Williams

It goes without saying that it is well worth taking in the entire show, but I was particularly curious about McMasterpieces, which is billed as an exhibition of "America's most exciting designers [effort] to craft unique objects and furnishings made entirely of parts and raw materials from McMaster-Carr, an Illinois-based industrial parts supplier whose J Peterman-style illustrated catalog offers more than 480,000 useful things."

Roman & Williams

After debuting the first edition of the project at the Ace Hotel during ICFF in 2009—in partnership with the designer Ross Menuez—Sight Unseen will present the second edition as part of the NoHo Design District with all new contributors, including Bec Brittain, Cmmnwlth, Jonas Damon, Nick Dine, Henry Julier, Tim Liles, Kiel Mead, Alissia Melka-Teichroew, Ross Menuez, Jonathan Nesci, Roman & Williams, Jonah Takagi, David Weeks, Workstead, and Karl Zahn.

David Weeks

Alissia Melka-Teichroew

Henry Julier Bowls on right

Karl Zahn

Top: Bec Brittain, Bottom: Cmmnwlth

Suffice it to say that each and every piece was interesting, though Bec Brittain's chess set (complete with a tiled leather board) was my personal favorite.

Bec Brittain